Eating
South Asian this Eid

This menu includes dishes from India, Pakistan
and Bangladesh. You'll find a mix of appetizers, rice, meat and vegetable dishes,
as well as two types of dessert.

Suggestion on how to set up this meal

Before you jump right in and start making
these great recipes, don't forget that part of the art of eating is how the
table is set, how people are seated, etc. On this note, we have a couple of
suggestions:

1. Make sure everyone is eating together.
In our fast-paced culture, it seems few of us have time to sit together and
eat. The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Eat together,
and do not separate, for the blessing is in the company (Ibn Maja).

2. Make sure younger children of the family
are hungry at meal time. One of the hardest things to do is to feed a child
who is not hungry. Don't give them any snacks about one to two hours before
this meal.

3. The best place to have this meal is not
in the small kitchen. It's in the living room.

Take out all of the furniture and spread
clean white sheets. Then in the center, spread a bright, decorated table cloth.
Put the different dishes in the center, and everyone sits around this set up.

4. Make sure everyone has washed their hands
before settling down.

5. Get one of the younger family members
to say a short Dua (supplication) before eating. Especially remember those who
have not been blessed with so much to eat. Chechnya and Mozambique are current
examples to keep in mind. Everyone should pray for those suffering there and
elsewhere and thank Allah for giving us more than we need to fill our stomachs.

Remind everyone to begin eating by saying
Bismillah (In the Name of Allah).

6. Once the meal is over, remind everyone
to wash their hands again and say the following as the Prophet instructed: Praise
be to Allah, who gave us to eat and to drink and made us Muslims (Abu Dawud,
Tirmidhi).

7. Make sure EVERYONE helps clean up. It
is not Haram (forbidden) for men to help with the housework. In fact, this was
a practice of our blessed Prophet.

The Food

Now, here is an example of a menu you can
use to put together a great Eid feast based on a South Asian menu (dishes from
India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh).

An South Asian Menu includes the following
dishes:

Crispy Fried Vegetables

Biryani

Raita

Korma

Tandoori Chicken

Almond Ice Cream

Kheer

Recipes:

1. Crispy Fried Vegetables

Courtesy of Shamima Rahman

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

2 tablespoons salt

2 tablespoons sugar

3/4 cup water

1 pumpkin

1 eggplant

1 head cauliflower

Corn Oil

Method:

-Thoroughly mix the flour with 1/4 of a
cup of corn oil. Thoroughly dissolve salt and sugar in water. Mix with flour
and make a thick batter. Keep mixture covered for two hours under room temperature.

-Cut the pumpkin and eggplant into small
cubed pieces.

-Separate the cauliflower into different
stems. Add a little bit of salt to all the pieces and keep at room temperature.

-Preheat the corn oil in a frying pan, dip
each square into the flour mixture and then fry the squares until brown and
crispy.